–Cyprus:Thorsten Beck looks at the alternatives for Cyprus. “Cypriot banks urgently need restructuring and downsizing, but a functioning financial system is necessary to handle Cyprus’s transformation to an economic model not based on an oversized banking sector. This column argues that splitting the Cypriot banking system into a bad ‘legacy’ part and a good forward-looking part seems the only feasible and effective solution to resolve the current crisis and restore trust. The Eurozone’s resources would be most useful in this bank-resolution process.” Separately, ZeroHedge posts a chart showing how Cyprus’s ratings went downhill.

–More Bernanke:Miles Kimball makes the case for a third term for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. “Although there are a few other economists who might match Bernanke in their monetary policy judgments, through his years at the helm of the Fed, Bernanke has developed an unparalleled skill in explaining and defending controversial monetary policy measures to Congress and to the public. The most important ways in which US monetary policy has fallen short in the last few years are because of the limits Congress has implicitly and explicitly placed on the Fed.”

–Retirement Saving:Ben Harris looks at measures meant to promote automatic retirement saving. “An important new study reinforces the benefits of automatic enrollment. In a sample of Danish workers, researchers at Harvard and the University of Copenhagen found that approximately 85 percent of retirement savers are “passive” savers. Passive savers don’t respond to price subsidies like tax benefits, but will save more if automatically enrolled in a savings account. Importantly, the researchers found that under a system without automatic enrollment, 98 percent of contributions to existing retirement accounts were simply offsets to other types of saving—a finding that casts doubt on the billions of dollars in tax expenditures now devoted to encouraging retirement saving. California’s plan faces several hurdles before enactment. But the evidence suggests that if it ever becomes policy, the plan will go a long towards increasing retirement saving.”

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